{Hokage's Office, Administrative building, Konohagakure}
{5:21 PM, 6th July 13 Yrs ANB}
{3rd Person POV}
'That doesn't seem like a bad plan, though I wish I could have hunted the missing-nins for a little bit longer.' Ren's clone thought.
"Got it... other than that there was also this," Ren spoke as he pulled out a kunai from his inventory. Shikaku's eyes widened as he stepped up immediately and asked, "Your shadow clones could access your inventory as well... shit, of course, they can, it's a bloodline ability after all..." Shikaku kept muttering again.
'If this works then our supply lines would be perfectly safe since Ren would never have to be in any danger. He would just need to have one clone that would walk with each battalion and he could instantaneously transfer stuff right from our armory to the front lines...' Shikaku thought, he was the first to realize this but after a few moments Hiruzen had the same idea, he was more focused on navigating the political situation though.
If this could work then Ren wouldn't need to return to Konoha this soon.
"Jiraya do you have those passive chakra regenerative seals on you?" Hiruzen asked.
"Uh yeah, but they aren't very useful," Jiraiya replied, he unfurled his large scroll and used chakra to unseal one of the many storage seals that were on the scroll. A couple of small seal tags emerged from the scroll that Jiraiya grabbed before he closed his massive scroll again.
"Well they work as they should, they can gather natural energy from the atmosphere and transfer it to a person. But they have 2 limitations. One that they won't work if you move too much, you at least have to be somewhat still for them to work."
"Trust me learning sage jutsu is a hell of a lot worse. They do most of the work but unfortunately, they jam your chakra system with a tiny bit of natural energy. And if your body isn't used to it it would slowly start to turn you into stone." Jiraiya explained.
Hiruzen nodded and spoke, "But there is no problem in them being applied on a clone is there?"
Jiraiya froze, he had been so disappointed by the limitations of the tags that he had never tested that theory, he shrugged, "Never tried it."
Hiruzen suppressed the urge to sigh and pointed at Ren's clone. Jiraiya nodded and walked over to Ren, "Alright kid, give me your right hand."
Jiraiya pushed back Ren's jacket applied the seal onto the clone's hand and activated it. "Done, now stay still and the seal should start working."
Ren's clone didn't have an interface or block like his real body but he could still sense his chakra increasing little by little.
"It works, I'm regenerating chakra..." Ren spoke and Hiruzen smiled. Shadow clones were truly remarkable, even though they seemed to be made up of chakra and were like any other clone jutsu, Shadow clones had one advantage over all the other clones. That was their chakra network.
Even Mud clones and lightning clones have chakra stored in them, but they don't have a working chakra network.
'Wow, my chakra is regeneration. But how, did Jiraiya talk about Nature chakra?' Ren's clone thought.
"Alright, you don't need to dispel, now how often does Ren check his ability space, if you put a message scroll in your ability would he know?" Hiruzen asked. Ren's clones could not only work as a transportation system, but they could also be used as a messenger.
"I don't know" Ren replied honestly.
"Let's test it," Hiruzen spoke before he wrote down something on a scroll and threw it to Ren. Ren caught the scroll and in one smooth motion dumped it into his inventory.
...
...
The three of them looked at each other as if waiting for something but nothing happened, Ren shook his head and spoke, "I could create and dispel a shadow clone and the boss would know, I just don't have the chakra right now so we would have to wait."
"Alright that makes sense," Hiruzen spoke, he then continued, "Was there anything else that you had to report."
"Uh year, boss made contact with a guy called Aoi Rokushō from Ame. According to the bingo book, he should have the Sword of The Thunder God that he stole from Konoha. A black market dealer introduced Boss to him, something about the upcoming war and since I'm technically a Konoha missing-nin I should not operate within the Land of Fire. Something about Ame recruitin-" Ren was talking when Jiraiya interrupted immediately.
"Stay away from Ame!" Jiraiya suddenly spoke.
His outburst was a little too sudden as everyone stared at him. Jiraiya controlled his surprise and explained, "Ame's security is too tight, I don't know what Hanzo is doing but going to Ame is too dangerous. I haven't had a single spy who had been able to successfully enter the Land of Rain. The security there is too tight."
"Uhh yeah, the boss had no intention of going to Ame, the plan is to deal with Aoi, get the sword back, and then hide in the hideout for a couple of months." Ren's clone spoke.
"Good," Hiruzen spoke, "Aoi was just a chunin when he disappeared and he stole the sword. The sword is quite powerful in the right hands but I doubt he would be able to use it to its full potential."
"Got it, I'll warn Boss about Ame when I can, judging by the rate my chakra is regenerating, I need another 10 minutes," Ren replied.
Hiruzen nodded, now that most of the situation had been handled, he realized that with Ren's ability, he didn't have to deal with the pressure of surrendering Ren from Konoha's clans. Ren could become a faceless ANBU member, and since he doesn't have a family he didn't even have to physically be in harm's way.
'Just by existing he would provide Konoha with a 20% boost in forces.'
No war is a short battle, it is a battle of wits and positioning, if the 4th shinobi world war breaks out then it would last for several months at the very least.
After waiting for 10 minutes, Ren's clone held up his hands in a cross seal and created a shadow clone. His chakra was divided into two and after sharing a head nod his clone released himself. After a couple of seconds, he opened his inventory and the scroll disappeared for a few seconds and then reappeared.
'That was quick.' Ren thought as he pulled the scroll out and opened it.
...
"Uhhh, we might have a problem..."
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AN - I'm alive and dealing with the excess work my company had to deal with because of Diwali. Do you know just how many Indians are there in tech nowadays, most of them took a couple of weeks off for Diwali and my whole company nearly went broke dealing with the lack of personnel.